Aper

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execution by Diocletian

...the Illyrians, to fight against the Persians. In 284, during that campaign, Numerian, Carinus’s brother and coemperor, was found dead in his litter, and his adoptive father, the praetorian prefect
Aper, was accused of having killed him in order to seize power. When Diocletian, acclaimed as emperor by his soldiers, appeared for the first time in public dressed in the imperial purple, he...

murder of Numerian

...brother, Carinus, ruled the West. Numerian led the army home but contracted a disabling eye disease. Late in 284, after the army had reached the Bosporus, Numerian was found dead. His father-in-law,
Aper, who had assumed command, was accused of his murder and executed, and the throne passed to Diocletian, commander of the household guards.